Dai-San Francisco Binbō Seikatsu Manual

I managed to squeak by for a rather astounding amount of time on odd jobs and favors; trading rides for meals, a favor for help with utility bills, being a tenant manager in return for half rent, wearing only shoes I found by the curb, repairing my own clothes, cooking cheap meals of mostly rice, etc.

But my infrastructure was failing (I couldn't afford auto repair, dental work, or much in the way of replacing tools, furniture, clothes, etc.) And I am still carrying a credit card debt.

So full-time work is GREAT. I intend to keep at it for a year, then I'll evaluate. The commute is short and the dress code casual so it isn't adding significantly to my expenses; that means I can put about half of each paycheck towards paying off all that debt ten years of near-poverty living accrued.

I do miss design. A couple evenings ago I went to market just as the sun hit that marvelous range of color, amber through rose, and I looked forward to doing lights again. And there's a few companies who are going to be calling -- one already did, but fortunately their first show isn't until January.



As I'm settling into the work schedule, (and as the days are finally getting cooler!) I'm getting out to the shop or getting some prop work done at home. I have promises I've made, so that prop work takes priority.

M40 grenades. I have two orders in progress. I've been communicating regularly and I was smart enough not to take payment up front. But they'd like me to finish and there's likely to be more coming along over time.

Since I have a bunch of metal and two larger orders, I'm taking the opportunity to make as many as I can at once and take some pictures to show that off. Pity I don't have one of the boxes from the movie too.

And as long as I'm doing that...

This is a picture from Matsuo, of his original design for Pulse Rifle ammunition. Never shown in the movie; all that is revealed is it is caseless, 10mm, and armor piercing.

Seems like a natural for 3d printing (but casting wins out to make a lot of them). The bullet itself, I have. Bought a bag of ones for reloaders.

The Holocron still bugs me. There's elements about the design that don't work for me. I've thought of some ideas but haven't had the time or concentration to get them drafted up in Inkscape and engraved on the laser.

There's also growing competition. I've seen some really nice holocron designs by other people, and the state of the art of the prop is moving beyond laser-cut acrylic and metallic spray paint.

In any case, I got some chunks of acrylic at Tap before my water pump blew, so ready for more experiments.

The people who have been looking to purchase a holocron are very interested in a proper electronics package for it, too. Which means I need to spare some time in Eagle to make up a new PCB. And a certain amount of experimentation there, as I intend to include an integrated LiPo charge circuit.

Pity my software skills are just not up to the USB stack, because I'd love to be able to have them serially programmable.




On the home front, a lot of cleaning and repairing. And if a design does show up, I need to do some organizing and repair of my audio gear as well.

Related to that, I really should put some time into making those tools I've been thinking of so next time a show needs one, I don't have to spend all night soldering and end up with a compromise. Primary among those being the remote linking devices; computer-MIDI-sensor-LED.

There are too many different kinds of problems to solve with one device (not and keep it in a reasonable footprint and price) but the programmable LED light (with option for remote control) has been something I've needed and had to cobble up so many times I really, really need to work up the PCB for version 2.

The related device is remote sensor back to computer -- generally to run sound cues, but integration with lighting or even just status display would have been wonderfully handy in a bunch of shows.



But, alas, the next few paychecks are probably going to go to the dentist. And this weekend will be mostly spent being in pain and not getting a lot done.